Celsus in his World

2021 ◽  

Celsus penned the earliest known detailed attack upon Christianity. While his identity is disputed and his anti-Christian treatise, entitled the True Word, has been exclusively transmitted through the hands of the great Christian scholar Origen, he remains an intriguing figure. In this interdisciplinary volume, which brings together ancient philosophers, specialists in Greek literature, and historians of early Christianity and of ancient Judaism, Celsus is situated within the cultural, philosophical, religious and political world from which he emerged. While his work is ostensibly an attack upon Christianity, it is also the defence of a world in which Celsus passionately believed. It is the unique contribution of this volume to give voice to the many dimensions of that world in a way that will engage a variety of scholars interested in late antiquity and the histories of Christianity, Judaism and Greek thought.

Author(s):  
Luc Bourgeois

The study of places of power in the Merovingian realm has long been focused on cities, monasteries, and royal palaces. Recent archaeological research has led to the emergence of other categories. Four of them are addressed in this chapter. These include the capitals of fallen cities, which continue to mark the landscape in one way or another. Similarly, the fate of small Roman towns during the early Middle Ages shows that most of them continued to host a variety of secular and ecclesiastical powers. In addition, from the fourth century onward, large hilltop fortified settlements multiplied anew. They complemented earlier networks of authority, whether elite residences, artisan communities, or real towns. Finally, from the seventh century onward, the great aristocratic villas of late antiquity were transformed into settlements organized around one or more courtyards and supplemented by funerary and religious structures. The evolution of political spaces and lifestyles explains both the ruptures in power networks that occurred during the Merovingian epoch and the many continuities that can be seen in the four kinds of places studied in this chapter that were marked by these developments.


2018 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 684-717
Author(s):  
Anna Lankina

The fifth-centuryEcclesiastical Historyof Philostorgius is an unusual example of a surviving minority source. Although scholars have mined his work for raw data on events between 320 and 425c.e., in contrast to other contemporary ecclesiastical historians, Philostorgius has received little attention. His work has suffered derision, being seen as nothing more than “Arian” polemic and thus as more partisan than its pro-Nicene counterparts. This essay analyzes Philostorgius's role as one of many competitive voices participating in the composition of historical works for the elite readership of Constantinople in the fifth century. Philostorgius'sEcclesiastical Historyconstituted an integral part of the historiography of late antiquity and early Christianity. His representation of the relationship between bishops and emperors reveals a distinctive theory of history which informs his entire work.


Author(s):  
Jonathan T. Hiskey ◽  
Mason W. Moseley

This closing chapter summarizes the central argument in this book and the evidence supporting it. Beginning with a brief look at the merendero program initiated in 2017 by the Rodríguez-Saá machine in response to an electoral setback, this chapter offers a discussion of the findings of this book and the implications of this study for the consolidation of democracy in Argentina and Mexico. This study’s findings also have implications for the many other uneven emerging democracies around the world that confront the persistence of subnational political machines. Also addressed are the ways in which attention to subnational political processes can further the understanding of a society’s political culture and the forces that shape individuals’ attitudes toward and engagement with their political world. Finally, this chapter brings the reader’s attention to several avenues for future research that this book begins to explore.


Author(s):  
Joan E. Taylor ◽  
Ilaria L. E. Ramelli

This authoritative volume brings together the latest thinking on women’s leadership in early Christianity. Featuring contributions from key thinkers in the fields of Christian history, the volume considers the evidence for ways in which women exercised leadership in churches from the first to the ninth centuries CE. This rich and diverse collection breaks new ground in the study of women in early Christianity. This is not about working with one method, based on one type of feminist theory, but overall there is nevertheless a feminist or egalitarian agenda in considering the full equality of women with men in religious spheres a positive goal, with the assumption that this full equality has yet to be attained. The chapters revisit both older studies and offer new and unpublished research, exploring the many ways in which ancient Christian women’s leadership could function.


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